


Taking Back

by Viridian5



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, Episode Related, M/M, Psychic Abilities, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1999-12-22
Updated: 1999-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-02 09:21:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridian5/pseuds/Viridian5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Gets on your skin and seeps into your bones..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Back

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for "Biogenesis," "The Sixth Extinction," and "The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati."
> 
> After seeing how "Biogenesis" was concluded in "The Sixth Extinction" and "The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati," I wondered why Carter bothered. This AU is me trying to do something with the potential I saw.
> 
> Inspired by David Byrne's "Dance on Vaseline." Big thanks to Ladonna for including it on the mix tape. Thanks to Kasha for the read-through and to Dawn Sharon for catching the mistake I'd typed in _after_ Kasha read the story.
> 
> I heard the term "Officer Friendly" in a Hth _due South_ story and had to use it here.

_"It's lousy science fiction  
Gets on your skin and seeps into your bones  
. . .  
This madness is attractive  
Until the day it happens to yourself  
And power might seem sexy  
But check it in the cool, gray light of dawn..."_  
 -- "Dance on Vaseline" by David Byrne  
\-----------------------------------------------------------

Like so many other things, it made more sense at the time. Now, lost in the depths of fucking Oklahoma at midnight with a newly unzombified Mulder sleeping in the passenger seat, nothing seemed as clear-cut anymore.

At the time, I'd just hacked my way into the Syndicate's files and found my own death warrant. They'd figured out that seeing that rubbing had catalyzed something the black oil had left behind in Mulder's body. Good for them. They'd also realized that they didn't have to risk Mulder, who was important for being Smokey's son, in their experimentation when they had a few other people who'd been taken by the oil. Bad for me. They had us all neatly listed and everything.

The decision to run had been a no-brainer. Deciding to take Mulder too.... Not as easily explained. Spite, gaining a bargaining chip, issuing a challenge.... Who knew?

Sneaking him out of that DoD facility had been far easier than I liked; breaking into and out of the institution would have been harder. Was the Project so damned secret that they couldn't even have sentries? Seemed like it.

Unless I was supposed to take him. I didn't want to think about that.

Through endless days of driving, shaking pursuit, I watched him rise and fall out of catatonia depending on how populated the area we drove through was. He really did seem to have become telepathic, with a little precognitive thrown in, and couldn't physically handle it. But I could see him getting stronger too, dealing with the drain on his body better and easier.

Since he rarely spoke, I couldn't know how much of his mind remained intact. After all, the Syndicate--through malice, incompetence, indifference?--had thrown him into one of the worst places you could put a telepath.

So he wasn't the best company. Like it made much of a difference. I had to decide what I'd do with him, because I couldn't keep carting him across the country like a favorite toy.

"Our tail light is out," Mulder said suddenly, his voice soft and hoarse after institution days spent screaming. Something had pulled him out of his sleep. "We're about to be pulled over." He sounded distant, indifferent.

"What?" Then I saw the lights behind us. Damn. "Couldn't you have seen that earlier?"

"No."

I briefly thought of running, but running looked suspicious. I pulled over like a dutiful citizen and waited for the cop.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?" he asked.

I hated it when they asked that. "No, sir."

He kept this badass, scary-cop look on his face until he said, "Your left tail light's out."

And that was so important? "I didn't know."

"I won't write you a ticket this time, but I have to give you a summons. Get that fixed and bring it to your local precinct in 24 hours, and you won't get any penalties."

Too kind. "Yes, sir." Just write the fucking thing.

But then the cop got the oddest look on his face and dropped his pad and pen. "I, I, I... I can't.... Don't, don't, don't.... _See_ any.... No, please. Don't, can't, won't, don't...."

What the hell?

I turned my head to look at Mulder, whom I could _feel_ concentrating. The flashing red and blue of the car behind us occasionally showed the intense look of concentration on his face before leaving him in darkness again. Red, blue, shadow....

"I, I, I, I, I...." Blood started to gush from the cop's nose before he fell to the ground.

I didn't wait for an engraved invitation. I floored it out of there. My car would be on the squad car's video camera, but I could switch cars later. The camera couldn't see _us_, wouldn't record us.

Once I felt that I'd put enough mileage between Officer Friendly's cerebral hemorrhage and us, I parked the car at the side of the road and turned on the light. "What did you think you were doing?" I asked. "I know that had to be you."

Mulder's eyes looked dark, as if he'd been bruised on the inside, but his voice sounded steady and cool as he said, "I thought I could convince him to let us go without a summons." A thin stream of dried blood marked the skin beneath his right nostril.

"Well, it didn't work that way, did it?"

"No."

"It doesn't bother you? You might have damaged that man for life."

"He makes as much sense like this as any of you ever do."

That took a moment to penetrate before my "oh shit" reaction kicked in. Immediately followed by a deep purr. Fucked up? Think again. If I could keep Mulder working _for_ me, I had a weapon I could use to strike anyone down from a distance without leaving any evidence of what really happened. It made the nanocytes look crude by comparison. Even better, using it didn't seem to bother him at all.

Except for that bit of blood from his nose. Since he didn't seem to care to do it himself, I wiped it away with my finger. But then I was leaning so close.... I didn't know how I started kissing him, but I didn't feel like stopping, and he didn't stop me, so I just went with it, lost in the taste of blood, salt, and madness.

Until I was done, at which point I put a one-handed chokehold on him and pushed him against the window. He'd started to move before I did but not fast enough. It looked like Mulder couldn't see _too_ far ahead.

"Did you _make_ me kiss you?" I asked.

"No. Besides, you saw how successful I was the last time I tried to make someone think something."

"I don't believe you." But he seemed calm beneath my hand, no racing pulse or bobbing Adam's apple.

"Well, I can't make you do that either." It sounded almost snarky.

I couldn't help laughing at that, especially since I heard the Mulder I knew in there after all. The known could be manipulated and dealt with.

"Maybe," he said.

I didn't like having my mind read. At all.

"I don't like reading minds. Yours is better than most."

"I could just kill you," I said, because I wanted to make sure he knew and heard.

"You could."

"And you don't care."

"Now that I'm free, I'd rather live, but I know that what I want doesn't mean much to you." Calm. Strange. Almost inhuman.

"Why should I let you live?"

"You already know. It's up to you if you decide to go with it."

Up to me. I smirked. I also realized that my thumb stroked his neck, and his eyes had half-closed to savor it. "When did you become such a sick puppy?" I asked.

"It's the company I was forced to keep."

Here I had potential and risk in one dangerously alluring and just plain dangerous package. Were the rewards worth being with someone who could read my mind? Part of me itched to shoot him to keep my secrets secret. But as much as it made me squirm to think about it, I figured that the benefits outweighed the discomfort.

Hell, I'd put up with the Syndicate until they'd threatened my life outright, _again_, so I could deal with this.

Could I keep Mulder; could I use him? "Like you're forced to be with me?"

"You got me out of that hellhole. You know what I am," he said, his abused voice making it a whisper. I heard emotion in it, even if I couldn't identify which one. "I'm where I want to be."

"For how long?"

"You're looking for guarantees, Alex?"

"That doesn't begin to cover what I'm looking for."

"Good. You want them to suffer; I want them to suffer. I'm getting more accustomed to what I am now, better at dealing with it, all the time. You're the only person who can aim me at them; you're the only person who would."

_That_ I understood. I softened the chokehold until it became a slow stroke. "You're volunteering to be my weapon?"

He smirked. "If you have the balls to use me right."

I smiled. If you want to just give yourself to me.... And I could always change my mind later. Listen to that, Mulder.

He smiled, perhaps in answer.

"Then we have a deal," I said.

### End

 

"Dance on Vaseline" by David Byrne

_I'm taking back the knowledge  
I'm taking back the gentleness  
I'm taking back the ritual  
I'm giving in to sweetness_

_Aw, preacher man,  
Shoot me with your poisoned arrow  
But I dance on Vaseline  
And I'm tripping out  
Working on a revolution  
Don't let the music in_

_I'm taking back the children  
I'm taking back the ceremony  
I'm taking back my offerings  
I'm taking back what you told me_

_You're dangerous,  
Shoot me with your poisoned arrow  
But I dance on Vaseline  
And I'm slipping out, I'm working on a revolution  
Don't let the music in_

_And war is all around us  
Your gods are dead and buried underground  
I was a Silly Putty  
Your big ideas are useless to me now  
My baby saw the future  
She doesn't wanna live there anymore  
It's lousy science fiction  
Gets on your skin and seeps into your bones_

_Aw, preacher man,  
Shoot me with your poisoned arrow  
But I dance on Vaseline  
And I'm tripping out  
Working on a revolution  
Don't let the day begin  
And you're dangerous,  
Shoot me with your poisoned arrow  
But I dance on Vaseline  
And I'm slipping out, I'm working on a revolution  
Don't let the music in_

_It started in Oklahoma  
You always think it happens somewhere else  
This madness is attractive  
Until the day it happens to yourself  
And power might seem sexy  
But check it in the cool, gray light of dawn  
The legislative body  
And all at once you're lost for my reason_

_And I'm tripping out  
Working on a revolution  
Don't let the day begin  
We'll turn you down  
Time to time for evolution  
Don't let the music in_

_And I'm tripping out  
Working on a revolution  
Don't let the day begin  
We'll turn it out, make a time for evolution  
Don't let the day begin_


End file.
